Throughout human history, children were thought of as servants, apprentices, or a means to ease workload. Children would work on the family farm or a family business. They could be easily taken advantage of compared to adults. The exploitation of children for labor without concern for their education or welfare was common and even the norm. No special concern about children existed. By 1890, 18% of the labor force consisted of worker between the ages of ten and fifteen. (6/) But the progressive reformers between 1890-1920 sought to change this. This period of time is refereed to as the Progressive Era. The reforms were a turning point in history for improving living standards and acknowledging basic human decency for majority of children in …show more content…
They believed that the government, local leaders, and the states should play a more active roll in bringing about a fair economy, raising the living standards for all Americans, and directing the vast American resources toward the problems facing America on a personal level. Reforms occurred on federal, state, and local levels. On a federal level reforms consisted of women's suffrage, lowering taxes on imports, prohibiting alcohol, regulating package of foods, sales of drugs, conservation of the environment, and regulating trusts. On a state level reforms consisted of reorganization and reduction of ruling bodies due to corruption, regulation of child labor, creation of power and sewer systems. Although many reforms were made during this period, we will be more concerned with those dealing with children in this paper. …show more content…
Corruption was rampant in politics and labor. There was a growing disparity between the rich and the poor and the large influx of migration wasn't helping this. All the while the urban middle class were experiencing a growth in this period. (pg3) Reformers were comprised mainly of the middle class. In 1890, Jacob Riis' “How the Other Half Lives” was published. This shocked and informed viewers by showing them the living conditions among the urban poor. Reformers among many other people sympathized towards children, working families, and migrant families due to this. The reformers believed they understood the poor and they despised the rich from creating these problems. The rich is the upper 10% of the economic ladder. (pg6) Sympathy towards the unfortunate were not always present. In 1849, a NYC chief of police, George W. Matsell thought the children in the streets were future criminals waiting to happen. This implies that the children would be better off working and laboring away somewhere other than the streets. He ultimately blamed the parents for the children's plight. Matsell believed the parents to be dishonest and immoral. (pg5) The parents he criticized were mostly immigrants and poor workers. Matsell's criticism were ignorant and unfair for which these families did not choose for their children to be out on the
In 1870, Riis emigrated to the United States and spent the next years wandering the northeastern part of the country. He didn 't have a stable job so when he obtained a job as a police reporter for the New York Tribune his life turned around. He took a position with the Evening Sun, then through his newspaper work he became closely familiar with New York 's poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods. In the 19th century, he started exposing the life of the lower class in New York city. In How the other half lives by Jacob Riis, he discusses how the half that was on top really didn 't care much about other than themselves and how the poor suffer.
The writings and pictures in Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives offer a vivid portrayal of the poor living conditions of New York's tenement houses and illustrated the necessity for progressive reform in the late 1800s. A vicious cycle held many of the tenants in its grasps through a combination of the landlords' rent prices and a lack of sustainable incomes. To Riis, the landowners looked like “tyrants that sweeten the cup of bitterness with their treacherous poison” (166). In the destitute areas, crime grew rampant, and the poor packed themselves into the tenements. Disease and illness worked adverse to any improvement of living conditions.
Introduction “How The Other Half Lives,” was written by Jacob A. Riis and published in 1890 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Jacob Riis had one reason for writing this book, and that was to expose to the upper class people of America the deplorable conditions of the tenements, and the gross abuses committed by the landlords who owned them; and to this he proposed a series of ways to correct the then current situation. This book became revolutionary during it ’s it time when immigration was at an all time high, and terrible tenements were popping up all around the city; it takes on this issue of the tenement with a ferocity that shocked all of America, and lead the way for reform .
Children are viewed as pure and full of potential, they are the future, so when he gives testimonies that their finical status already limits one child at such a young age concerns his audience because of the lost potential. Moreover, society has this belief that children have the right to be nurtured, especially in the United States, so Gladwell focuses on displaying the lack of care from the community for these children taps into the audience’s concern and desire for
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s reformers in the United States were trying different methods to advance the country. The reformers had different goals such as earning women suffrage and assisting the poor. The reformers had their methods to help bring about change in society. Reformers had different goals and methods to help change the society.
During this time period it was not just adults that were working. In order to support their families, children were sent to work as well. The new places of work such as mines, factories, or garment shops were wanting workers that could reach into small spaces and could do small tedious jobs , there is where the children come in.
[2] In addition, the early reformers concerned other social problems destroying the nation. These included the growth of cities, the spread of industry, changes in gender roles and generational relationships and the breakdown of older paternalistic social relationships. Consequently, traditional structures of familial, communal and clerical authorities were weakening, relationships between parents and children, employers and workingmen were breaking apart. The reformers also worried that rates of urban growth that increased suddenly in foreign immigration could
In the period between 1900 and 1920, the federal government and reformers were very successful in bringing social, economic, and political reform to the federal government. While not every aspect of it was successful, the rights of women, fighting against child labor and limiting the control of trusts and monopolies were three distinct successes of that time. Even before the progressive era, women challenged their place and articulated new visions of social, political and economic equality. The progressive era was a turning point for women as organizations evolved fighting for equal rights. Woman began to become very involved in a variety of reform movements.
Forces such as immigration, industrialization, and the populist party during the time e=were the foundations that led to the progressive era reforms which impacted the American Government greatly in its democracy and in its activeness and involvement in businesses an so on. The progressive era reforms is quite similar to the New deal era in the 1930s, they each produced a record amount of programs and policies that worked to change the status of Americans living in poverty, which included their working
The progressive era which lasted from 1890-1920 in American society was the institution of radical reforms brought about by the millions of Americans involved in volunteer organizations across the country. During this time Americans worked to create solutions to the problems caused by the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the country. The progressive era was not a single movement, but rather a collection of movements all of which were intended to improve the lives of Americans. This was a truly remarkable time for women and the end of the era would see almost universal women’s suffrage with the passing of the nineteenth amendment in 1920.
Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.
Wiebe displays the reforms of the Progressive Era and the changes they were seeking. Wiebe describes the progressive reformers as, “the new middle class” (Robert H. Wiebe 80). Ultimately, this new middle class was looking to reorder the government by themselves. A major reoccurring theme was the focus on the children based on Wiebe’s view of the progressives. This is shown when Wiebe writes, “He united the campaigns for health, education, and a richer city environment, and he dominated much of the interest in labor legislation” (Robert H. Wiebe 82).
The progressives, wanted to create a society that acted as one. The idea of being an individual was something to be forgotten in order to create a more perfect civilization of order and pureness. During this time of the progressive movement, the rest of society began to reject it ideology of their message and goals of nonpleasure and work. Especially around the Carina Arreola History 1302 W.Wooten time of World War One, the Great depression, and the New Deal.
Social inequality is overlooked by many. It affects so many of us, though we have yet to realize how extreme it is. Lee argues in this novel how much stress social inequalities put on the black and white races throughout the 1930s. Although, social inequalities did not just affect different races, it also affected poor people and family backgrounds. These are proven in the novel multiple times through Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the Cunninghams when the book is looked at more in
Social injustices have been an apparent theme throughout history for many years. Anti-Semitism and Racial discrimination are just two of the many examples of social injustices that have been exhibited in our society. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, both novels share the theme of Social Injustice. Narrated by Death, The Book Thief follows nine-year old Liesel Meminger during World War two in Germany. Liesel and her family are on their way to Molching when Liesel